Documentary

People often ask me, “Why documentaries?” and I am instantly filled with dread. It always bothers me that I struggle to come up with what should be a simple answer. Truthfully, documentary filmmaking was not something I considered on my list of “things I want to be when I grow up”. It happened naturally, through opportunity and continued social interest. (Booooring!) Still, I wish I could formulate a solid response that would a) melt your heart, b) keep you from falling asleep, and c) convince you that documentaries are not only for the history channel!
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Despite our success at the Ngorongoro Crater, the strict rules prohibiting going off road cramped our style. Tarangire Park had been mentioned as the 3rd most important attraction but when we heard a German couple rave about the animal density there, we asked our guides advice. Now, the guides aren’t supposed to change schedules or rock the boat but when we asked what they would do in our position, the call was made to spend our last filming day in Tarangire Park. What a good decision it would prove to be!
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Yousef is an extremely social animal. He has over 2,300 Facebook friends. He loves portraiture and has charm to burn. We pull into a gas station where a half dozen or so men lounge against a wall. Richard cautions Bob not to take pictures of them or at least to ask their permission first. But Yousef is already in there holding the 70-200mm vertically and blazing away. Richard frowns and the men look menacing. But the young Saudi/American charmer walks right into their midst and not only shows them their portraits but offers to send them copies by E-mail. Bob...

Ngorongoro Crater is an incredibly popular tourist attraction. A volcano blew the top off a massive mountain. When the hole eventually filled in, it created a large level plain visually different from the Serengeti because of the rising mountainous wall behind almost every shot. Because our cameras are mounted around chest height this makes a difference. There are also forests and swamps with more verdant green than almost any place in the Serengeti.
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The travel nurse at Kaiser Hospital in Los Angeles routinely included two different styles of diarrhea medicine in travel kits to Tanzania. The first is for symptoms. You try that first. The second is for the cause. You use that if the first one doesn’t work.
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High speed and time lapse are to time what macro and astronomical photography are to space. We’ve shot time lapse sunsets at our camp to show the transition from day through gorgeous sunset to shutter-open-for-25-seconds night, and then have the laptops come on as we began our daily download. The sun sets like a rock at the equator, and it goes from unbearably hot to ‘where’s another layer to put on’ cold. In between, the Tse-tse flies have a field day. That sharp prick you feel is an injection of something lovely into your system.
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[Ed. note: We just heard from Yousef that, in addition to the motion picture footage, they have over 1000 photographs already! He tell us that they're amazing, and we have no doubt that they will be worth the wait. In the meantime, please enjoy the latest installment of their pictures in words.]
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Bob Poole warned us. The ride was going to be rough. Two L/Rovers with the rear seats removed for camera maneuvering space. Seven hours of roads even the locals called bad. Richard and Dennis with the pedal to the metal - slipping and sliding - teeth rattling washboard roads - climbing the side of the road to let another speeding Kamikaze L/Rover squeeze by on the narrow road - our Maasai drivers throwing their L/Rovers with the accuracy of a spear - and when a big bus or truck comes at us - Holy shit!
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Our missing bags contained one of our tripods, the main lens for the EX-350, the alternate lens for the Weisscam, both our monitors, the charger for the Weisscam battery,one of our Ki-Pros and miscellaneous gack.
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Marcos, Clairmont’s loyal driver, had our 10 large cases of gear at the airport at 6:13 AM on August 10, so we had plenty of time to register them at US customs before our 11:15 AM flight. Customs asked us to schlep all our cases to their office. Once we had, they told us to check them in at Detroit, because we changed planes there. When we mentioned that we only had 40 minutes to make our connection, the customs agent suggested we ask the airline to solve our problem.
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It took 6 long days for the three of us to check out, trouble shoot and pack our gear, even with all of Clairmont Camera's years of expertise and Denny Clairmont himself nursing us through a challenging Saturday. This was much, much harder than any of us anticipated and without Clairmont's kindness and patience, particularly Irving, Shane, Tom, Brandon, Zack and Steve, we'd still be trying to figure things out.
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I'd like to say I have been so busy catching up on work that I have not had a chance to write new posts. This is partially true. Partially, I took a week to visit my folks in insanely sunny Florida, helped my wife through some medical troubles (no, for the last time, I did not film it) and have in fact been pretty busy at work. Oh, and I discovered I know a lot of people on Facebook. But back to the important topic of workflow. As described in excrutiating detail in previous posts, I make the most of...